Kraak & Smaak are a musical producer trio from the town of Leiden, the Netherlands, consisting of Oscar de Jong, Mark Kneppers and Wim Plug.
In 2003 a first couple of 12”s are released on the UK label Jalapeno Records. Interest from Annie Nightingale and Pete Tong leads to airplay and the recording of a DJ guest mix for BBC Radio 1. Several remixes for UK artists such as Mark Rae and dj tours across the US and Australia follow.
The debut album Boogie Angst featuring several artists such as U-Gene and Dez (wrote, sung single 'Keep Me Home') in 2005/6 released in the UK, Benelux and Japan and a band is set up to be able to play live alongside the DJ sets. During 2006/7 their shows will take them to festivals such as Pinkpop, Sziget, SXSW, Miami's Winter Music Conference, Bonnaroo, Coachella, the Australian Good Vibrations Festival and on a first small club tour in the US. A number of support slots are also played for Faithless in that period. Supported by Jason Bentley of KCRW the album is re-released in the US by Quango Music and various tracks find their way into television series such as Grey’s Anatomy, Men in Trees and What About Brian?
The Remix Sessions is released in early 2007 and includes reworkmores for Jamiroquai, Sarah Bettens and Kruder & Dorfmeister. It also includes a remix of the Skeewiff cover version of ‘Man Of Constant Sorrow’ (as made famous by the O Brother, Where Art Thou? movie by the Coen brothers). Since then Junkie XL, Sam Sparro and others have also been re-rubbed.
In 2008 their second artist album was released, Plastic People, whose title track was written by and featured Uk artist Bobby Nio ]] and Mark Brydon of electro band Moloko. The first single off that album, Squeeze Me, featuring UK singer Ben Westbeech, is a minor hit, with a #6 position in the Dutch pop charts and receiving lots of rotation worldwide. The video by Dutch director Andre Maat, with its ‘flip book’ theme wins support from US celebrity blogger Perez Hilton and rap artist / producer Kanye West and picks up various awards. In the US, album and single are released by Ultra Records and BBC Radio 1 dj Annie Mac asks Kraak & Smaak to record a minimix.
Dance magazine IDJ describes Kraak & Smaak as a “Must see live band”, alongside names such as the Chemical Brothers, Moby and The Prodigy. Building on that qualification, during 2008 Kraak & Smaak play the Glastonbury Festival, Bestival, Bloom, Lovebox, the Big Chill festival and club shows at The Cargo and The End in the UK, the Rothbury Music Festival in the US, Lowlands in Holland and again the Sziget festival. During their US live tour at the end of 2008 they perform live on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC television. In 2009 and 2010 new US dj and live tours follow, playing shows nation-wide in clubs and on festivals such as the Ultra Music Festival, Rothbury, Coachella, Detroit Movement, Wakarusa, and so forth.
In January 2009 the EU sponsored European Border Breakers Award (EBBA) is won, alongside acts such as The Ting Tings and Adele. The award is presented at the Eurosonic festival in Groningen (city), during a television show hosted by Jools Holland.
After a long period of touring and collabs (Sander Kleinenberg) and even more remixes (Maxwell, Max Sedgley, Fedde le Grand, Darwin Deez, etc.) K&S's third album 'Electric Hustle' is released in April 2011, featuring Romanthony, Lee Fields, Janne Schra, John Turrell and Lex Empress a.o. on vocal duties. A new series of dancefloor EPs is released under the name of 'Kraak Beats' and Moby's new single 'The Day' is remixed.
Albums
Singles and EPs
Remixes
Show more
Show full biography
Source: Wikipedia
Print
Twitter
Facebook
MySpace
